I'm sure we're just going to be seeing more and more of this. Technology is getting good enough that being part machine will start to be an advantage, rather than a handicap. Conventional thinking is changing.

A Shotput where the crowd in the stands actually has to be warry of excessive distance.....man that could be cool seeing the stands get rocked by shotput....javelin might be a bit too....scewery for some. But the shotput...heck yeah!!!

@Warren-That would be interesting. And then you could compare the data from the Fringe Olympics to the Natural Olympics and...Scientific goodness! You could write peer reviewed journal articles for AGES....I miss Biology.

They actually had to change the weight of the javelins used in international competition a few years ago because people were within a couple of feet of being able to chuck them past the end of the field and onto the track.

Since the Olympics already blurs the line between 'amateur' and 'professional' thoroughly, it wouldn't shock me to see the enhanced/unenhanced boundary get smudged - especially with a bit (more) of corporate sponsorship from pharmaceutical corps.

I just think we should stop pretending that we want natural athletes, and just let athletes use the drugs or technology available. In reality it seems we aren't interested in natural performance so much as better performance.

Cyborg Olympics would indeed be cool.But i don't agree that we (as a public in general) don't want natural athletes. We want to believe that they did something superhuman, without actually 'cheating'. If we knew that Lance Armstrong used drugs to win the Tour de France several times in a row (which we don't know, but still suspect), his glamor would be gone. He would suddenly stop being a superhero and become an evil underwear pervert. So I doubt that an official 'fringe' league would be commercially viable in the short run, especially since it is far too probable that many athletes would probably just die by consuming their enhancement drugs in an irresponsible manner. We also would have to watch women with penises. No thanks.I feel sorry for Pistorius though, I think he should have been given a chance, it would have been a great gesture towards all disabled (or enhanced?) people.

George Carlin talks about this on one of his CD's (I think anyway). The equipment that athletes use is constantly being improved. Running shoes, tennis rackets, you name it. If your business is sport then your body is essentially another piece of equipment, so why not let them use science to improve that too?

If someone wants to turn themselves in to a steroid fueled monstrosity just so they can throw a weight half a mile or run like a cheetah, why the hell not let them? Would probably get me watching the olympics again...

Speaking of cyborg olympics, why do they bother requiring the cast of American Gladiators to pass weekly steroid tests? Not the competitors, the cast of giant thugs. The point of banning performance-enhancing drugs is theoretically to promote a level playing field, a fair chance. On a reality show? The contestants are supposed to be the protagonists of the story, not the cast of American Ogres. I mean Gladiators. Whatever. They're the adversary. It's ok if the bad guys cheat, it's expected. Why expect that the huge thugs are required to stay clean?

Theres one thing that tends to be forgotten in this whole discussion. Artificial Enhancement aside, what about those athletes who DON'T want to consume metabolic poisons and mood altering drugs to gain an edge and risk damaging their future health? Those folks are effectively screwed if we take a "Let them take what they want" approach to the issue of doping in organized sports competition.It depends on your perspective I suppose, but as someone who knows several "working athletes", I tend to view sports as more than mere entertainment. For some people, it is their life, their work, and their creative outlet. Additionally, from the perspective of a fan, I have a hell of a lot more respect for players who can achieve sports greatness within the rules of the game they play, not in some grey area that may or may not be fair.

For the regular folks you have another level of competition. Essentially, roided out HGH Hulking monsters would just be a bizarre spectacle, like a modern day circus, and not a serious competition. Seeing a guy throw a discus out of a stadium and embedding it in a car in the lot isn't really sport, but it would be some fun telly